Fluid transport systems are well known and used in a number of applications. One specific application of transporting a fluid in a machine is the transportation of ink in a printer. Common examples of inks include aqueous inks and phase change or solid inks. Aqueous inks remain in a liquid form when stored prior to being used in imaging operations. Solid ink or phase change inks typically have a solid form, either as pellets or as ink sticks of colored cyan, yellow, magenta and black ink, that are inserted into feed channels in a printer through openings to the channels. After the ink sticks are fed into the printer, they are urged by gravity or a mechanical actuator to a heater assembly of the printer. The heater assembly includes a heater and a melt plate. The heater, which converts electrical energy into heat, is positioned proximate the melt plate to heat the melt plate to a temperature that melts an ink stick coming into contact with the melt plate. The melt plate may be oriented to drip melted ink into a reservoir and the ink stored in the reservoir continues to be heated while awaiting subsequent use.
Each reservoir of colored, liquid ink may be fluidly coupled to an inkjet printing apparatus. The liquid ink is pumped from the reservoir to a manifold in the inkjet printing apparatus. As the inkjet ejectors in the inkjet printing apparatus eject ink onto a receiving medium or imaging member, the action of the diaphragms in the inkjet ejectors pull ink from the manifold. The inkjet ejectors may be piezoelectric devices that are selectively activated by a controller with a driving signal.
Conduits typically employed in transporting ink between a reservoir and one or more inkjet ejectors may be referred to as “umbilicals”. An umbilical may be used as a fluid coupling for transporting liquid ink between an ink supply reservoir and an inkjet printing apparatus. An umbilical may contain one or many separate channels for transporting fluids such as ink. Typical prior art umbilical assemblies include one or more conduits formed from a flexible material, such as extruded silicone, for example. During operation, the channels in the umbilical are filled with ink so as to avoid inserting air bubbles into the inkjet printing apparatus. Air bubbles suspended in ink supplying the inkjet printing apparatus may cause ejector misfires during imaging operations.
During maintenance and cleaning operations, ink within an inkjet printing apparatus may be purged through the inkjet ejectors. A receptacle or catch may be used to capture and hold the purged ink. The receptacle may be emptied after a purge operation by suctioning the ink out of the receptacle through another umbilical to which a negative pressure source has been applied. In prior art printers, the purged ink is discarded after it is removed from the receptacle. The collection and transfer of the purged ink enables more efficient operation of an inkjet printer by allowing the reuse of ink that would otherwise be discarded as waste.